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Guidroz Food Center "Well I started working in a grocery store; I was 12 years old. That was in 1939, the year before the flood, and I just stayed with it. That’s all I’ve done all my life." – Joseph Guidroz
"But this has been my life and I’m just fortunate; I married a woman who understood not that business came first, but that this store was a part of my life." – Alvin Guidroz In 1959, Joseph Guidroz opened Guidroz Food Center in Lafayette, Louisiana. His home was attached to the store where he and his wife worked, and the children literally grew up in the grocery business, playing among the aisles. Today Joseph Guidroz is 81 and retired, but on Tuesdays and Fridays he dons a work shirt and goes to the store to help make boudin. His son, Alvin, now runs the family business full-time. His days start at 4 a.m. and end at 7 p.m., when things go according to plan. And though the hours are long, both men appreciate that they can work for themselves and their store can be a gathering place for the neighborhood. NOTE: What follows is a portion of the original interviews that have been edited for length. The Joseph Guidroz interview appears first. Click here to jump to the interview with Alvin Guidroz. To download the entire transcript in PDF form, please click here for Joseph Guidroz and here for Alvin Guidroz. Subject: Joseph Guidroz ----- Mary Beth Lasseter: Today is Friday, January 23, 2009 and this is Mary Beth Lasseter. I’m here in Lafayette, Louisiana at Guidroz. Could you please state your name and tell me your birth date and what you do for a living, sir? Joseph Guidroz: My name is Joseph Guidroz and I’m officially retired, but I’m making boudin. And my birthday is October 22, 1927. Can you tell me a little bit about this store, and I might add that while you’re talking to me you’re stuffing boudin? Right; correct-a-mundo that’s what I’m doing--stuffing the boudin(s) and I don't have too much to say for myself. All I ever did was grocery and meat business and started this in ’59 and we’re still going strong. How did you decide to open a grocery store? Had your family done work like that before? Well I started working in a grocery store; I was 12 years-old. That was in 19--1939, the year before the flood, and I just stayed with it. That’s all I’ve done all my life. Did you own that first grocery store that you worked in or did your family own it? No, ma’am; no--oh no. I went to work for a stranger. I was only 12 so I delivered on the bicycle and then kind of graduated to inside the meat market then it just kept going from there but always in the grocery business. And then in 1959 I had an opportunity to go into business for myself and I took a chance, and I’ve been--been at it ever since. Tell me a little bit about your store. What do you make and what do you sell here? Well we sell some groceries but mostly meat--a variety of meat. We--we specialize in specialty meats where the people--in fact I think we’re about the only meat market left with actual butchers that--that cut meat--I’m talking about hanging beef and not boxed beef. We buy hanging beef and break it down into parts and make different cuts. ----- Tell me a little bit about your family history if you would? Where is your family from and do you consider yourselves Cajun? Yes; I do. My--all my family on my mother’s side lived in Saint Landry Parish and my father’s family came from around Loreauville, but that’s just Saint Martin Parish I believe. And how many siblings did you have? Had four--I’m sorry; three. We were four--no, no I was correct the first time--four siblings. And what did your parents do for a living? Sharecroppers [Laughs]. Here in this parish? Well around Carencro. That’s in--that’s in Lafayette Parish but also in St. Landry Parish. Moved around a lot; we moved from Carencro to Lafayette in 1937. I was 10 years old and I started school but by the age of 12 I was in the second grade and I--I quit school to go to work. That’s it. ----- Well tell me a little bit about your boudin and your recipe ‘cause I know the store uses your recipe. Son Alvin shouts from the side: Put the microphone off. I won't give away any secrets--. Don't give away any secrets. Well you saw the whole process except for the seasoning and like I told you it’s all done by touch and sight, like your grandmother used to put a pinch of this, [Laughs] a pinch of that, a smidgeon of this. And that’s the way I was taught so I taught that to my son. And he’s been doing it the same way and we’ve had very, very good success with it. What spices do you use in your boudin? We use red pepper, salt, garlic powder, and we use onions, and celery and that’s about it--the old-fashioned kind. Do you consider your boudin a hot boudin? No; we make it for a whole family to enjoy--the kids as well as the adults, so it isn't too spicy. Can you tell me a little bit about how you recommend cooking boudin or warming it? Well you--you put a pot of water on the stove to boil it and once it’s boiling you drop the--whatever links of boudin(s) you have and you cook it for about seven or eight minutes or you have to be careful for not the water to come back to a big boil because if it boils violently it could break the casings. So if the water comes back to a boil too quickly you lower the fire and you let it stay in there for about seven or eight minutes. When do people eat boudin? What meal is it served at? No particular time; they eat it all the time. [Laughs] I’ve got some people that come in here now that are second and third generation. When their--when their kids were two years old when they first started eating, boudin(s) was one of the first things that they--they ate. Now their kids are coming in here and buying boudin(s). ----- Is it a tradition around here for people to make boudin at home or do they always buy it from specialty meat shops? Well it’s--[Laughs] I don't know; now days nobody makes boudin(s) at home. Why do you think that is? Because the younger people don't know how to go about making boudin(s). A lot of them ask, how do we do it? You tell them but they always think it’s a little too much work, and it is a lot of work. Now how much boudin do you sell here at this store? Oh 600--700 pounds a week I guess. And who is buying it; who are your customers? Well a lot--or most of it is repeat business, people that keep coming in every day--day in and day out to buy boudin(s) and then they bring it to their friends in Texas, Mississippi, or Georgia--all over the place. So it’s--and the only advertising we do is by mouth. We don't advertise in the paper; we don't advertise on TV. People tell others; go to Guidroz and get boudin. They got the best. And we try to keep that tradition to always make the best product. ----- Can you tell me a little bit about the steps you take to make boudin? How do you start? Well we start out by cutting up the meat, put it in a pot, put the seasoning that we need in there, add water and let it boil ‘til it’s cooked. So that way we get that good gravy; all the--the juices from that meat stays in that juice with the seasoning, so that’s why our boudin is one--one link will be the same as the other. They’re--they’re won't be one hot, hot link and the other one not too hot because in the mixing process, when we mix it all the seasoning goes all over everything--the rice and--. Do you cook the rice separately from the meat? Oh gosh; yes, ma’am. [Laughs] And I guess that’s--I guess there’s a secret to cooking rice too. We just take it for granted it’s sort of normal you know. We just put so much rice in the pot and add water and salt and you put it on the stove. Do ya’ll use Louisiana rice? Oh yes; Louisiana long-grain rice we use--I think we’re the only ones that use long-grain rice. It’s a good bit more expensive but I’ve always found it was better. That way your--if you use short-grain rice it makes a mushy boudin. So we get our--our consistency in our boudin that it’s not mushy. Earlier when I was here today you were showing--your son was showing us some of the equipment. Can you tell me about what equipment you used when you started making boudin years ago and what that compares to--how that compares to the equipment you use today? Well when I first started out you--you’d put it in a pan similar to that stainless steel pan over there and you’d put your meat and rice in it and you’d mix it by hand. And then what would you use to stuff it in the casing? What would I use to put it in the casing? A bull horn--a bull horn from the first--when I first started and then I graduated to a--a hand stuffer; it’s a manual deal, made 30 pounds at a time. And it has a--a spigot on it and it has--you--you crank it just like you know--. How much boudin could you make in a day using that sort of machine? Well that sort of machine? Oh if you’d do it--it would take a little more time than what we got now because now we make--when we put our cylinder together we put 100-pounds of product in it at a time. The other one was only 30-pounds and you had to keep refilling. So it--it would take a while longer but if I did just that I guess I could have made 200 or 300-pounds. ----- Do you speak French? Yes; I sure do. I speak a lot better French than I do English. [Laughs] When I started school at 10 years-old I didn’t know a word of English. So your family spoke French at home the whole time? Well I--I speak French every day. I try to speak French to somebody. I’ve got two sisters that are--they were also not able to go to school--that speak French, so we talk French. Then I got lots of friends that I talk to and I talk French. My fellow employees I talk French to them but they--I don't know; they don't catch on too quick. But one of the employee’s father and his mother we still talk—well, I talk to his mother in French still. So French--my French--I love my French language. Do your children know it? Not too well; not too--too good. They’re--they understand a lot of it but they--they can't speak it. And do you see these traditions--the food traditions and the language traditions, are they being passed on to the next generation? Not very much; I feel that a lot of this tradition is going to fade because of the younger people not wanting to get involved in making all this stuff, and they--they don't want to work hard, and this is hard work. So that’s why they’re getting away from that; they want to sit at their desk and just play with register or play with the computer. They don't want to--they don't want to do manual work and it’s--it’s--that’s what it’s getting to. Subject: Alvin Guidroz ----- Mary Beth Lasseter: All right; this is Mary Beth Lasseter at Guidroz Food Center here on Friday, January 23, 2009 and could you please tell me who you are and when you were born and what you do for a living? Alvin Guidroz: Well I’m Alvin Guidroz and I was born June 24, 1955. And when I was three years-old that’s when mom and daddy were in the store business, which I grew up here you know all the kids--we all had to grow up into the store. And just been here ever since and my--my oldest siblings all went to college. And I tried the college thing and matter of fact I’m a musician. I played in the UL Band and stuff and I still play as of today in a local community band. But this has been my life and I’m just fortunate; I married a woman who understood not that business came first but that this store was a part of--a big part of my life you know. And because it’s a very demanding job; six days a week and you don't get the holidays, you don't get the--the weekends off, you don't get vacation time, so there’s some downsides to this but it’s--it’s good being in business for yourself, you know just--. Entrepreneurship right? Can you tell me a little bit about your dad and your mother and how they started the store and sort of the history of it? Well they did start in 1959 but daddy had been in the store business for years. I think he started when he was 10 or 12 years old actually delivering on a bicycle and stuff like that. But mom and daddy met and wound up marrying and he decided to go in business for himself, so--which they did. Like I said in 1959, and my mother passed away in ’94 which is 14 years ago--now going on 15 years, and I’m just glad that I was able to keep the business in the family because you know through--through death and something that’s--that’s tragic it actually gave my dad a reason to get up in the morning, to get dressed, to come to work. You know the healing process in this business one of the--the nice things about this business is we’re servicing fourth or fifth generations now and most of these people--I would say 85-percent of my customers we know by first name or by last name. So it’s a very--very close knit family group we have here and over the years again you--you get this--this friendship that builds up within a community, you know respect for everyone. And I think having this store here actually gave my daddy that--that chance to come in here and let’s say--customers would say oh Mr. Joe; he said I’m sorry that Miss Joyce passed away or something, so it was a healing process for him, ‘cause you know when we grieve you know it’s always good. ----- Tell me a little bit about your schedule. What is the day like? Well I usually wake up around 4:00 in the mornings and like we all need to do a little physical work and--physical fitness of some sort, so I have a little routine I do in the morning before I get ready for work. But after that 40 minutes or 45 minutes I get dressed and I come to work. I’m usually here about quarter to five and aside from an hour’s break in the middle of the day I’m usually home by 7 o'clock that night. So and that’s six days a week; but I got good employees, so it’s not a question of--it’s just the business is that good fortunately for us and if you hire too many people for me to take the time off well then the little bit of profits you make tends to be getting--getting eaten up you know. But it’s a good life; it’s just as you get older you start looking--you start treasuring that little bit of time that you can have off whether it’s a weekend or one day even you know. So the values are there though and I think that’s what my dad has showed--shown me over the years. And to think that I took over 24 years ago and it has done nothing but thrive and grow. ----- Can you tell me a little bit about the secret to your success? Not all areas of the country have these small specialty stores anymore; lots of them have given way to big grocery box stores. Why do you think that this area of the country is one where you can thrive and--and what do you think makes your business special? Well I would like to think that in small stores like this there is no way you’re going to be able to offer the special pricing like say the big conglomerates, whether it be the Wal-Marts or the--the Food Savers or whatever--there’s no way small stores can compete with that. So you have to rely on two other things which is good service and a good product, ‘cause you know eats--food that people consume, they don't mind paying the price for a good product. It’s a lot different than a canned good or something that you’re going--that you’re going to prepare like boudin that we make for a resale because there is no way you know that canned good is going to differ from store to store. They’re all going to be the same; so that’s pricing. But when you’re talking about the quality of a product like the boudin that we make I think it goes with the 50 years we’ve been in it goes way beyond that you know and it’s the cultural thing, because people say well we have to try boudin. We’re going to Louisiana; we have to try boudin. And when you see something in--in a big food store that’s vacuum packed in a meat case you know that was a commercially made product. And there’s no way that they’re going to be able to compete with the quality that a smaller store like us are going to make for the simple fact is--pricing. You’re going to go out to a big store and you’re going to pay $3.00 a pound. Well in a small store you’re going to pay $4.00 a pound--somewhere(s) in that average. But there’s a difference in night and day; that’s like driving a Chevrolet and driving a Cadillac. I mean it’s that much difference in the two products. So I would think that’s what has been our longevity in this business, and of course you know when you’re in a neighborhood store like we are and for the amount of time we’re here, the only way you can make it is to have a good understanding with the community, with the neighbors, and of course be well liked. And so the only way you can do that is to give people something good in return, you know. So we definitely make the best quality; I’m not going to cut down on quality. If the pricing goes up I’m going to have to go up on the product. I will not sacrifice quality for the quantity or for the pricing. ----- What do you see for the next generation of this store? Well that was kind of a tricky situation there. I had--my youngest son, 26 years old now and he was the one that I was grooming to take my place like my dad groomed me to take his place. And he did come here after he served in Iraq for a year and a half. And he came here and worked for me and he is a natural. He’s got exactly what it takes; you talk to him it will be like talking to me or talking to my dad. That’s--we’re almost like clones you know which is a good thing to be in this business. But he has--he’s a natural ability but he decided he--they got married--he got married and had a set of twins and he decided he wanted to try another career so he left me and he went to the oil field and it has been two years now--well going on three years and he’s happy where he’s at and we all get along well. As far as the future, I don't know what’s going to happen; you know you never know because I’m only 54, but do I have another 10 years of good health where I can still do this? I don't have a per se manager to run everything; it’s either me or my dad closing for me. It’s either me or my dad taking my place and at 81 I guess that time is getting a little shorter, so I need to be looking at different things to do and--so I don't know quite where that’s going to go at. But I know in talking to my son I try--not convincing him but letting him know what the future holds--held here; I mean I think there’s enough--enough life left in this business to go another 20--25 years. So I would like to see it stay that way and hopefully I’m a part of it. I can still be a part of it you know. Are there any young people in the neighborhood that have expressed an interest in running the [store]--? No, not really; this--this is--it’s a tough business and like I said it’s very demanding. The--the workforce has kind of changed. As far as being dedicated to a job and being loyal to a job, you know people will leave for a 50-cents an hour more raise. They’ll leave at a drop of a hat. So you don't have--you don't have that--that amount of people like--like you did in the--in the ‘30s and the ‘40s in the harder times; you know now money is--looks like so easy to come by or get--get jobs whether they--they pay better or not it’s still that 50-cents an hour, they’ll leave you. So the employees I do have I try to pay well and I try to abide by their--not abide by them, but try to be thinking of--of them as--as a person--not just an employee. They’re not just a number. So you know everybody has got their own lives to live and everybody has got their own things--things that happen in life. So if--if you need to go somewhere(s) I’m going to work out with the other employees so that you can go somewhere(s), or if you’re sick or doctor’s appointment; so you know it’s--it’s a little different when you’re running a small business versus a big business--multi-million dollar business where you have 50--60 employees, people to cover those open areas, you know. Can you tell me a little bit about boudin; how do you cook it, how do you eat it, and how often do you enjoy it? Well of course I process boudin a minimum of twice a week and I usually taste it every time ‘cause I want to make sure the taste is to my liking or what—we’re--used to processing. But I don't eat a whole lot of it because it is--things like that are a little high in cholesterol and that’s--that’s one of the things that I--I inherited from my parents. But you did see the processing going on where you do have to cook rice--or one of the first things in the morning when I get here on a boudin day, of course I’ll start cooking the rice. I’ll start cooking the meat and that takes about five hours to--to complete those. And then you have to start processing it and putting everything together, mixing it like you saw in the mixer, putting it into the stuffer, stuffing it, you know so there’s so many stages. There’s so many steps; I mean you--and then we didn’t even talk about the washing of the pots and the washing of--‘cause all these things that we’ll use they all need to be washed. They all need to be cleaned; they all need to be sanitized so that when you come back and use it Tuesday--the next day you know--. So boudin is very labor intense, very time-consuming but again it’s--it’s one of the more profitable items in this type of business, so you can--you can use it as a draw for other products in your store ‘cause you know you’re going to get the traffic coming in you know. In addition to the meats that you cut, what other specialty meats do you make here other than the boudin? Well of course we do make--what goes hand-in-hand with boudin; we do make our homemade hogs head cheese which I think you already--you actually got a chance to see that also, which is basically the same meat as boudin but without the liver, a little bit--little bit more spicier than boudin is and so you take--and it should actually be named daube glace. In French daube is a roast; glace is cold, so if you took--if you cooked a pork roast this weekend, the leftovers you had--you took the leftovers with the gravy and put it in the refrigerator. When you came back the next day it’s going to be gelled so that’s where the hog head cheese is. We put it back into the--into the juice after it’s ground and then it makes--it makes a mold, a form. So it gels hard; so again that’s one of the traditional--we don't use hog’s head. [Laughs] You know we use the same meat as boudin which is just pork meat with no liver. But we also do the--anywhere(s) from stuffed pork chops to stuffed chickens to boneless turkey, boneless turkey; we do fried turkeys for the holidays. I mean we have diversified so many places you know and it’s because of the people wanting the product and if you don't have the product they’ll go somewhere(s) else and get it. And of course we do cracklings every day and I don't know if you’re familiar with what cracklings is--if you could imagine the product that they use to make bacon which is the belly of a pig. And if you seen bacon you have the--the skin, the rind, and then you have a layer of fat and then you have some streaks of meat. Well we take it and instead of it being smoked, we take it raw, and we cut it up in cubes and we fry it and you render it down and it makes what we call cracklings and we like to think of it as Cajun potato chips. It’s--it’s well seasoned and you--you eat it like--you know there’s a little chunk, so you--you just pop it in your mouth and you eat them almost like popcorn would be but--exceptionally good. I don't know if you’ve ever tried--but you need to try cracklings at least one time while you’re here. What other items? I mean there’s--there’s so many things that we--that you get calls for. We do fresh sausage also; we do a mixed, we do a pure pork, we do a jalapeno, we do a chicken, so we have all these different varieties of sausage. At one time all we did was the mixed, mild, and hot but then people started coming in and asking well ya’ll don't have jalapeno sausage? So you start making jalapeno sausage and then they come in and say you don't have chicken sausage? And then we start making chicken sausage, so you wind up with four or five different brands, a--a product like that--that people want. Of course we’re still into--we’re one of the very few left by the way that still breaks down beef that we buy and--and front quarters and hind quarters, you know actually from the slaughterhouse once--once it’s--the animal is dressed out. They send them to me and we actually take the front quarters and hind quarters and cut them up to make steaks, make chops, and there’s not too many stores like this that do that anymore. That’s kind of a dying art mainly because the big stores now all buy boxed beef. You can get it broken down--you can get it--it’s a little more expensive but you don't have to have a man standing there with a knife and you don't even have to have a man knowing what he’s doing, as long as you show him cut from here or there. The way we do it you still have to figure out that--that beef--you can have a loss, you can have--so you know it’s--it’s pretty neat to be able to still do it that way you know the old time way. Is there anything that I haven’t asked you that you would like to share about your family or the business? Well I think you’ve covered just about everything. Again we’re--I like to think that we’re on our fourth generation and after the 50 years and hopefully we’ll be here the next time you want to make another interview, we’d like to still be here and be able to talk to you and maybe I’ll have my son here back with me at that time. We just got to see how the--how the ball rolls you know. ----- To download the entire transcript in PDF form, please click here for Joseph Guidroz and here for Alvin Guidroz.
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